Observation
by AlyCat3
Summary: Five times Tony was oblivious, and the one time he payed attention.
1. Berries

Disclaimer: My life has nothing to do with the Marvel studios except to admire there marvelous work!

A/N: So I've seen a lot of these things floating around, and couldn't resist making my own. Since I actually prewrote all of them out before posting, I will put one up every other day

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Berries

"You know, as popular as we are, I'm surprised that we don't get more of these" Tony said, waving around a pink glazed doughnut.

"Tony, you think people should donate themselves to you, if you wanted these more often you could go buy them yourself." Bruce told him as he licked the sprinkles from the paper wrap.

"Why waste the time? People are already giving them to me" He told them waving his breakfast around and sending pink filling in all directions. He shoved another huge bite into his mouth as Pepper walked in, and Tony's smile merely got wider. "Pepper! You'll never believe what Steve found in the mail today! Remember that bakery we saved last week? They sent us this huge selection of doughnuts! They brought us every kind, chocolate, glazed, st-"

"That's great Tony, but I've really got to get going. I've got a meeting at nine to discuss the board proposal and-"

"Ah, work shmurk. Come on, at least take one" Tony stepped into her direct path and bent down so that his face was more level with hers, but before she could answer he instead kissed her firmly on the mouth. Only when he leaned back to say something else did he see Pepper blushing at being kissed so enthusiastically in front of the rest of the Avengers. Quickly licking her lips and taking a step back from him, she grabbed what was in his hand and popped the rest of the pastry in her mouth, swallowing much to quickly.

Tony frowned at her and accused "You couldn't have even tasted that, you just swallowed it. You need another" He grabbed her wrist and turned back to the box before Pepper easily slipped from his grasp and declared "Sorry guys, but I really do have to go. I'll see you all later!" and continued her fast pace out the door. Tony frowned after her retreating form and mutters "She needs a vacation."

It was almost three hours later, and it takes Tasha a good ten minute of searching the place before she discovered Tony in one of the many rooms on the Tower with a sever look on her face. Natasha with any kind of expression on her face always equaled something bad, and this one screamed death alert. Tony jumped and tried to scramble behind the nearest person, luckily Clint, in hopes she would change targets, all the while wondering what he could have done this time to warrant her wrath.

So he was pleasantly surprised when she instead held out a phone for him, and he wordlessly took it. He put the receiver to his ear without taking his eyes off the assassin before stating "This is Stark speaking, who is this?"

He half expected it to be Fury for some reason, or any number of people calling to ask for interviews or loans. Even if he wasn't the sole owner of his multinational company, he got pestered a lot more then he would like to acknowledge. So he received another shock when a crisp female voice spoke threw the receiver "Mr. Stark, this is Tiffany Loans from the New York Regional Medical Center in the ER. A Virginia Pots was submitted here two ours ago having had a sever allergic reaction to an as yet unknown substance. Her condition has stabilized, but as you were listed next to kin once we received her name, I'm obliged to inform you that we need you to come down here so we can have a few things straitened out."

Tony couldn't remember ever getting tunnel vision before. In fact, in most cases of sever stress, his eyes would widen out and he could see ever detail of the room he was in with far to much clarity then was natural. So he saw quite plainly when the phone slipped from his grasp and collapsed onto the floor with the woman still speaking into it. He quickly took note of the way Barton was at his side in a flash, grabbing his arm before he could sag any lower to the ground. He registered at once how Natasha took up the phone and began speaking into it, and even the back ground roaring that was his mind trying to close in from all sides.

He would not allow it to however, because his mind had registered one thing, and one thing alone. This was all his fault. His mind had managed to stay trapped on that one thought for so long, that the next time he was aware of his surroundings, there was a doctor leaning over him, speaking to him very slowly as if he were coming from a deep sleep.

"-has received her epinephrine shot, and is recovering just fine. She should be waking up here momentarily, and you can go back and see her now."

He momentarily pondered over how this doctor had managed to part his hair in such an odd fashion before his mind snapped back to reality with a harsh slap. He did not wait for a response, but instead mechanically asked which room she was in, and managed to get there without the daze this time. It was only when he reached the correct hall way was he aware that Natasha and Clint where still with him, when had he stopped keeping track of them? It didn't matter, he instead pushed open Peppers door and almost collapsed once again at the sight of her.

Her satin skin was much to pail, the tight bun she'd kept her redish locks in this morning had fallen to splay around her face giving her a ghost like appearance. He was at her side in a flash however, scooping her hand into his own and murmuring quietly in her ear. How ever, despite what the doctor had said, Pepper's eyes did not open right away, and it must have been several hours later before his body made itself known again. He realized that he had to go to the bathroom, and felt physically torn inside that he would have to leave her side for something so trivial.

Yet despite the mind protests, it didn't take much longer to acknowledge that he couldn't sit in this chair forever, and managed to get slowly to his feet and ignore the crackling of his back as he straitened from that position. Some how, Pepper had not managed to snag one of the rooms with a bathroom in it, so he had to actually leave the room making yet another bit of himself chip away. Thankfully the closest one was just down the hall, and he think hie might have broken a record on being able to get in and back out to go back to her room.

He was not expecting, however, to almost run flat into Tasha right outside the bathroom door. Tony hadn't spoken to her this hole time, and wouldn't doubt it if her and Clint were pulling bets on how long he could go without actually talking period by this point. He attempted to side step her, when she again blocked the path with ease. Eyeing her for a moment, trying to prethink of what this could be about, but thankfully she decided not to beat around the bush. "I don't know what's been going thew that mind of yours Stark, but you should probably know that this is all your fault."

He flinched as if she had just struck out, but knew that she was correct. This had been what was going threw his mind since that horrible phone call, and was pretty much frozen on that. Not much else had managed to get threw, but he wasn't going to admit that to her! "I have no idea what your talking about" he snapped, perhaps not the best retort, but perhaps would get him back to the room faster.

Tasha crossed her arms and eyed him reproachfully and stated coldly "You know perfectly well what I'm talking about. You kissed her directly on the lips this morning and made no attempt to stop her as she swallowed that strawberry filled doughnut! You've known her for how long and that just, slipped your mind?"

Tony couldn't help but automatically go on the defense, despite the truth in her words. "Well, you knew as well as I did, and you didn't say anything either!"

"I didn't know there was actual strawberries in the filling! I wasn't the one eating it Tony, you were. Don't pin this on the rest of us for not catching your mistake. How on Earth could you have missed the fact that you fed your girlfriend the one food she was allergic to!"

His shoulders slumped, and Tasha realized she might have gone a bit to far when no reply of any kind came back. Tony Stark looked more defeated then she had ever seen him as he slipped past her and back to the room, but she managed to catch his voice mutter very lowly to himself "I'm trying to figure that one myself."

Tension was high as the two walked back side by side, but seemed to be sucked from existence as they came to the room and heard voices floating out of it. Faster then even she might have been able to move, Tony was again at Peppers side, though this time she was awake and sitting up talking to Clint. Natasha stood in the door way and looked on as Tony's flamboyant personality came back in folds as he alternately apologized profusely to Pepper, and accused Clint of trying to steal his girl while she was vulnerable.

Guilt was still the dominant emotion hovering around him, but she could also see those signs of regret forming into something else, something she was sure would only lead to better things for those two future.

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And, that's the first one! Like I said, I'll post the next one Tuesday so review and let me know if you loved it hated it, or just to say that you like strawberries and really feel bad for Pepper like I do.


	2. Insomniac

Disclaimer: My life has nothing to do with the Marvel studios except to admire there marvelous work!

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Insomniac

It had been four days since Ms. Potts had returned back to work, and three since she had been called out to an emergency board meeting in the heart of Philadelphia. Why to all the way out there none of them but Stark himself fully understood. Yet she was fully functional and healthy as ever. We'd all taken to the shock of the situation pretty hard, she was as close to the Avengers as if she was one of our own now. Yet none had taken it as hard as Tony himself, unsurprising as the two had been dating for almost a year now. Steve was starting to grow a bit worried, if he was being honest with himself, since none of them had seen Tony in several days. Except perhaps Bruce, but he had been going down to the lab less and less as he prepared for his trip to Africa. Some gama way over his head thing that they needed Dr. Banners professional opinion on, and he'd been packing up for the trip so diligently that he hadn't had much time for anyone.

Steve had just decided that he would come up with some sort of reason to bring Tony back to the light of day when he walked into the kitchen and was pleasantly surprised to see the owner of the place himself rummaging threw the fridge. "Hey Tony, finally managed to resolve world hunger?" He asked as he turned away to make himself a pot of coffee. Odd that he would have to do this at all, seeing as this was usually Tony's first priority of any morning. It was only as the steaming brown liquid started to ooze from the filter did it register that he had not received an answer of any kind, and slightly concerned, turned to see that Tony's head was still neck deep in the refrigerator. Feeling a bit snubbed Steve walked over and tapped him on the shoulder stating "Hey Tony, if I offended you or something-" Yet at the tap to his shoulder his senses seemed to come to life and he whirled around with an egg in his hand held suspiciously like an inexperienced one would hold a grenade. His face registered first shock, then surprise as he said "O, hey Steve, what are you doing down here?" It concerned Steve a bit how his voice seemed to have cracked, as if form disuse.

Steve looked around the kitchen before looking back to him and stating "Um, getting breakfast, like I do every morning. Its good to see you out of the lab for a change."

Tony blinked sluggishly at him, then seemed to look around the surroundings himself. As he studied the room, Steve studied him. His hair was plastered to his face with what seemed to be natural grease instead of the oil for a change. His close, if Steve recalled correctly, to seemed to be exactly the same as the last time he'd laid eyes on him. His eyes were the worst however, blood shot and with huge black bags under each of them. Steve felt a creeping suspicion come over him as Tony turned back to him sluggishly, and then stated "Hu, odd. No wonder I couldn't find that hydraulics chamber."

He turned away , but Steve reached out and grabbed his shoulder, and was alarmed when there was no sort of resistance. Stark didn't pull away, or demand for Steve to remove himself. Just stood there half turned away and blinking slowly. Steve turned him back to face him and in the harsh and cold lighting of the still open fridge demanded "Tony, how long have you been in the lab?"

The question took far to long to register in the geniuses mind, and much to long to get a reply. "Depends, how long's Pepper been gone?" he asked, his words slurring slightly, as if he were drunk instead of sleep deprived.

Steve placed his other hand on his shoulder as well, demanding his full attention as he said slowly and clearly "Tony, Pepper left three days ago. Are you telling me you haven't eaten or slept since she left?"

His shoulder twitched under the grasp, and Steve gentled the hold slightly, realizing he might have been squeezing a bit to hard in his shock. How ever, Starks voice displayed none of that as he continued to speak in a sort of mumble "JARVIS needed his upgrades, can't let any more fucking berries get into this stupid place. Can't make that mistake again. Didn't think it would take that long, suppose I should have watched the time passing."

Roger's brows flew to his blonde hair line as he demanded "How could you not notice you haven't moved in three days!" To this there was no reply, and instead of arguing with an insomniac, Steve instead released his grip and slung one of Tony's arms over his own shoulders to drag his ass to his freaking room. Tony stumbled along beside him, so out of it Steve wondered how he'd gotten to the kitchen by himself without falling over.

Only after Stark was dropped into the nearest room, not even focusing on if it was his actual room or not, did Steve turn and head up to where Bruce would still be for a few days. He needed him to do a quick double check to make sure Tony hadn't turned JARVIS into the worlds next man eating cyborg.

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Yay, part two is up and ready.. I have nothing else to say. For once. Hope you enjoyed


	3. Good By?

Disclaimer: My life has nothing to do with the Marvel studios except to admire there marvelous work!

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Good By?

After sleeping for twenty four hours and making sure that JARVIS upgrades had gone smoothly, Tony seemed to be a bit better when he next walked into his lab. It was Bruce's turn to come down next, seeing as the group had decided the only way they could make sure that history didn't repeat its self was for one of them to come down here every other hour and check on him.

Tony was not thrilled at the idea of 'Super Baby Sitters' as he put it, but did not seem up to arguing the point. He mostly just ignored the others and there sarcastic commentary on him, and waved away there questioning before going back to his work. He had just put the finishing touches on JARVIS, so that he was now able to scan anything coming into the house for the common explosives, and anything with the word berries in the title, or even the abstracts of it. He was still insanely guilty over the hole thing, and was determined to make it up to Pepper when she got back. He was now positive he had the means to do that. Yet would this be the correct way to apologize? After all, she hadn't exactly told him-

Bruce came in right on schedule, but instead of peaking over Tony's shoulder to check on what he was doing, or even head over to his own work area to get to his own thing, he picked up several of his note books, and put them in a box that consisted of his other gama related projects. Pulled away from his work by curiosity, Tony whirled around in his chair to watch Bruce for several moments before asking "What's up Bruce? This space not big enough for the two of us any more? You know I was thinking about putting a sky lab in my next place, you know so that we can have a glass roof instead of these walls. What you doing with that stuff?"

The last question was so random that it took Bruce a moment to fully register what all had been said. "Um, putting it in boxes."

"Yes, thank you, I gathered that. Back to my original question of why?"

"I've been packing this stuff up for days Tony. Your telling me you didn't notice all of my stuff being taken out of here by me?"

Tony took pause to retort "You didn't notice I hadn't left this spot in days."

"Touche" Bruce admitted "but in my defense, I didn't know you hadn't moved. I thought you had just been working late hours again."

Tony waved his hand around clearly stating he'd like to change the subject back to "your avoiding the question Brucie. Where. Are. You. Going?"

Bruce looked down, slightly abashed as he said "I'm sorry Tony. I thought you knew. SHIELD found some gama radiation hovering over a village in South Africa and they want me to go down and look at it personally. I should be back in less then a month."

Tony frowned, feeling slightly uncomfortable that he had missed something so obvious again. First Pepper, then the time pass, now his best friend. He ran a hand thew his hair and he huffed "Well, I guess its to late to do much about it now. Just uh, be careful hu? If I get an inkling that a mad green goblin made an appearance, were bringing you strait back home mister."

Bruce allowed a small smile to appear upon his face before he turned to leave. This couldn't have come at a worse time, Tony was clearly dealing with some stuff right now, and could use all hands on deck. Now his girl friend was out of states and he was going to be out of the country. Before he left the mansion, he made one more quick double check to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything, and then made one quick stop to the bathroom before he left as he knew that it was going to be a long drive to the secure airplane that would take him the rest of the journey there.

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So were on chapter three and already this story is number one on most Alert list. Which is totally and really awesome to me, because I only alert the stories that mean I need to know when they've updated right that second so I can go read it! I thank you all to every person who has done this so far! Just don't forget to review hu? Let me know what your favorite line was, try and guess what's going to happen in the next one, let me know if you don't like something in particular! Thank you to .rain for being the first person to review this. I'll post again on Saturday


	4. Alcohol

Disclaimer: My life has nothing to do with the Marvel studios except to admire there marvelous work!

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Alcohol

Stark didn't even glance down at his phone this time as it went off for the fifth time in two hours. I was very curious to know why Bruce kept calling Tony when he was supposed to be doing something in Africa, but Tony didn't seem to want to care. Which is why he declared to anyone who was listening, I.E. the only person in the room at the time which was Clint, that he was going to go get wasted in public for a change.

The fact that he told Clint at all where he was going was the clear invitation that he should join, let alone the loud musings of how large his bill was going to be if he could find a date. Clint sighed, knowing that if anything happened to Tony while he was out alone he would probably get into trouble for it for some reason or another. So he followed, at first trying to be discreet, but after Tony left the second bar, he decided to hell with it and openly joined him for a beer.

Tony might have a steady girlfriend, but that sure didn't stop him from eying every single red head that came within ten feet of him, including there waitress. She seemed to be enjoying the attention the playboy was dishing out to her, even passing him a free drink at one point, which he knocked back as fast as he did to the others. Forever suspicious of his surroundings however, Clint was watching the reflections in the glasses around him when the bar at his back caught his eye. There bar tender was mixing up another drink, and did the girls around here usually put something in there concoctions, pulled from there shirt?

Clint narrowed his eyes in distrust as it was poured into the brown liquid, and then stirred up by a quick shake of the glass. His suspicions merely confirmed when the girl came back, and placed that same drink in front of Tony. He had been facing the bar sure, but seemed mildly surprised to find another drink in front of him. Still, never the man to pass up any type of alcohol, he grabbed the glass and was fixing to down it like the others when Clint shot to his feet and stumbled forward.

Always in command of his body, he made a spectacular performance of stumbling around drunk as his companion and apologizing for knocking several more drinks over in his rush to the bathroom, pausing only once to grab the collar of Stark's shirt and drag him along. The man was so out of it that his weak attempts to pull away could have been pushed aside by a new born, so Clint made quick work of getting threw the marked door, and from there it was pure cake. He quickly pushed open the window, shoved the civilian out first, and then pushed, shoved, and at one point supported while his friend puked, all the way back to Stark Mansion.

He was greeted by a fuming Steve and a frowning Natasha, but ignored them both as he finally dropped his rather finely dressed and heavy burden onto the sofa to pull his phone out and open the secure line to reach his boss.

Barton made quick work of explaining the situation both to the phone and to his friends, he was nothing if not a multitasker, and only after Fury's statement that he would look in on the attempted threat did he turn his attention to the drunken billionaire attempting speech from the sofa.

Stark was not making a whole lot of sense at this point, then again he'd hardly made any sense when he'd entered the third bar which had been one of the reasons Clint had joined him. Tony had way to much to drink when he started making claims that Bruce was prank calling him and deciding which names were to stupid for human contact. In the same sentence.

Still, hopefully the man was at least slightly lucid enough that he could get something threw that thick skull of his. "Tony, how did you not notice that chick slip something into your drink? You were facing the bar and ogling her all night!"

Tony's blurred eyes managed to focus on him long enough to slur "How did you catch that, when you weren't facing the bar?"

Barton was on the verge of pointing out that they didn't call him a 'Master Assassin' for the fun of it, until Stark barfed on his sofa that probably cost more then the Taj Mahul.

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Yeah, I love Clint and Tony, those two interacting together is awesome! Glad you guys are enjoying this, and I will update again on Monday


	5. Malfunction

Disclaimer: My life has nothing to do with the Marvel studios except to admire there marvelous work!

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Malfunction

"Iron Man, how's it going up there?" Captain America demanded for the third time.

"O you know, just trying to simultaneously balance on one thruster while using up the energy to do nothing but annoy the hell out of this giant mutant cockroach! Who the hell could mutate this thing any way? Aren't they supposed to be able to survive nuclear wars! You'd think that would make them mutation proof!"

"Focus" Black Widow hissed into all of our ears "Just hold him off for another thirty seconds, then we can all pull in at once. That should be enough to get this thing down!"

"Make it fifteen" Iron Man had enough time to respond before on of this things endless legs shot out and swatted Tony away as if he were a house fly. He went strait threw a wall with a nice loud sound effect, but the endless cursing coming into all of there ears left them relatively assured that he was still okay.

It took another good fifteen minutes for them to subdue the admittedly odd bug, in which time Iron Man had yet to make a reappearance. Starting to get worried, Captain America sent Thor threw the wall to look for him while the rest of his team continued there securing of the oddity.

Thor made his way threw the wall with far to much ease, upon closer inspection none of them had realized how big a hole there team mate had made. When the God did not at once find his companion he started shifting some of the ruble around with his hammer, and using the other to alert the rest of the team that this might be a bit more serious then they thought.

After a few brief swipes he finds the hot red boot under a good chunk of wall, and manages to easily lift it away, only to become frantic at once. Thor was even more clueless when it came to these Midgardians and there 'technology' as they all seemed to put it. The others were constantly attempting to teach him such things as 'waves that micro' and 'visions that televise things on small black boxes' that were often mounted on the walls of there home. However, the one thing even he made sure he understood was the glowing blue light coming from Stark's chest, and the fact that it was no longer glowing meant something was very wrong.

Though the team had been threw much together, there had only been two instances Thor had some direct correlation to the Arc Reactor. The first time he meet Tony Stark and he gave him a good zap with Mjölnir, which had in turn lit Iron Man's suite up to more then full capacity. The other time was when Tony had fallen back threw the portal, which the Hulk had managed to arouse him from. Had Hulk not done this, Thor himself would have brought lighting down upon his new found friend in hopes that the same thing would happen. Thor was now going to test this delayed theory.

Raising his weapon of berth high to the ceiling of this structure, he waited mere moments for the element to become formed enough that he might bring it down, not to smite his opponents, but hopefully to save the life of his comrade. He hadn't realized that his friends had been shouting in his ear for some minutes, but became aware of them once there voices grew to loud shouts at the sudden blast of electric purple spraying down upon there location.

He pressed the tiny button down to tell his friends what he had found, all the while watching with bated breath as Tony's light began to flicker back to life. It was only when the familiar humming and whirring of the unusual suite reached Thor's ears did he attempt to talk to his friend, and actually expect an answer.

"Stark? Iron Man, are you with us once again my friend? Please answer me, for I can still not see if your eyes are open below your mask you wear."

There was some sort of reply that did not seem to be any language Thor recognized, but he knew that his friend speaking once again was probably a good sign. The bright glowing blue light from the chest plate, and the fact that Stark somehow managed to remove his helmet, left Thor in no doubt that his friend was once again back.

"Tony Stark, are you well? Shall I strike you again, for that seems to have helped much."

Iron Man's face did a sort of mix of different things, from looking on in fear to trying to not close his eyes again in what seemed to be pain.

"No, that's alright Thor, thanks buddie. You did good though. Do the others know where we are?"

"Yes, indeed they do. Captain America has informed me that a medical team will be here shortly, and that you be best advised not to move. The rest of the team will be along in an ever shorter while."

"Great" his friend said, though still not sounding in his normal tone of voice, but a tired and some how odd way of talking still. "That's great." His eyes seemed to be closing once again, but at that moment the Black Widow's voice came threw, commanding him that he would be best to keep his friend awake until others could arrive. So he tossed out the first question that he knew should be asked "Friend Stark, why did your suit fail you? Your fall was not so much as the one from the Great Portal, or even varying other blasts you have received."

He started to mutter something, but seemed unwilling to complete the sentence, so Thor bent down and started tapping his face much like Tony had done to him on multiple occasions to awaken him. "Tony, I did not understand you, would you please repeat that."

One of his brown eyes cracked open just enough that Thor could see the sleep, pain, and worry floating around them as he answered "Didn't take note of how much power I was using up."

"You did not notice your own suite malfunctioning on you?" Thor demanded, thinking this was very unlike his tech like friend, but Stark did not answer him and Thor realized that it was because his friend had once again fallen unconscious.

Thor was on the verge of once again administering his own version of shock paddles, when the rest of his team arrived with the healers of this Earth.

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I think this is my favorite out of all of them, even though I probably like Thor the least (ducks to avoid many fan girls throwing large objects at me, including my bff.) But I do like him. His ignorance always gives me a giggle, and I always wondered if the Hulk hadn't screamed at Tony at the end of the Avengers Movie, if Thor would have done the same thing he'd done earlier and it would have worked the same. In my mind, it would have, hence this. Hope you enjoyed, and the last one will be up on Wednesday.


	6. Surprise!

Disclaimer: My life has nothing to do with the Marvel studios except to admire there marvelous work!

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Surprise!

Two weeks. That's how long it took Tony to be able to move around, admittedly slower then any of them were used to, under his own steam. Pepper mused to herself she was lucky perhaps, since the  
doctors had tried to insist upon a month. Tony didn't do well with hospitals, so considering the circumstances, two weeks was perfectly normal.

Pepper was worried about Tony, he just hadn't been acting like himself lately. Was it possible that he knew? How could he? She hadn't even figured it out until the day of that stupid allergic reaction incident. She was going to have to talk to him, sooner or later. Sooner would be better, she had to admit to herself. Especially if her boyfriend was going to keep pulling stunts like he'd been recently. Tony happened to be a very perceptive person, so the way he was acting lately was starting to worry Pepper in a way like she hadn't had to before.

She looked in all of his usual haunts first, and unable to find him in any of those, simply gave up on the conventional methods and asked JARVIS. The AI informed her that Tony was currently hanging around outside a door on the thirty third floor, seemingly just standing there lost in thought. Pepper became even more worried at that. Those sets of rooms were nothing but guests rooms, and not even the ones the other Avengers used. Why on Earth was he down there?

Pepper marched to the nearest elevator and waited impatiently for the soft ding to announce her arrival, and was pleased yet still unnerved to see Tony merely hanging around in the middle of the hallway, fiddling with something in his hands. She cleared her voice, and watched as Tony whirled around, stuffing what ever had been in his hand in his pocket, and giving Pepper that grin that she knew meant that she was going to have to spend the next week soothing the public affairs once again.

Tony opened his mouth to speak, but she beat him to the punch by demanding "What are you doing down here?"

"It's a surprise" Tony shrugged, giving her another soft secret smile "I'm glad your home from your trip early Pep. Its been dead boring around here."

"Quite literally from what I've heard" Pepper hissed, glad that she had been able to hold her temper in long enough to release it on the one who deserved it. "What has gotten into you Tony! You've been screwing up your sleep again, ignoring Bruce's very worried phone calls, getting drunk off your ass in public, and now your not even paying attention when you get in your suite! If you've been feeling that guilty about that stupid allergic reaction you could have just called me Tony!"

Now did not seem to be the time to point out that she was very happy Tony had made no move to call or talk to her in the past three weeks, because quite frankly the conversation she needed to have with him didn't seem phone appropriate. Yet had she known he would be acting like this, she would have demanded it.

All while she had been yelling, Tony had been fidgeting like mad with what ever was now residing in his pocket, but his voice came out the usual cocky manner "Sorry if you've been worried. I've been distracted by something. Something I really need to talk to you about-"

She cut him off, not in the mood for his games. "I don't care what it is Tony. It can wait until you and I have a serious talk about, well about something I should have told two months ago. Look, I know this-"

This time it was her boyfriend who managed to cut her off mid sentence, he seemed to blurt it out before he gave himself time to really think on his words. "Pepper, I know your pregnant." All of the air whooshed right out of her until she felt almost light headed.

She couldn't help but stare at him, and couldn't stop until she realized "That's why you've been so distracted? You knew? How on Earth could you have known, when I haven't even been to the hospital yet?" She didn't have to get a doctor to tell her what her body had already confirmed however. Yet how had Tony even managed to guess at this?

"Please Pepper, you really think I wouldn't notice my own girlfriend acting out of it for the past month and a half?"

"I've hardly been here for the past month" she reminded him

"True" he accepted "but I still know you. Which is, yeah I admit, why I've been so distracted. Then Bruce left and started trying to call me every hour trying to tell me he'd fond a pregnancy test on one of the lower floors. You know, I'd think that was something your best friend would tell you face to face, and why he would think I wouldn't know anyway- "

I could see the beginning's of a Tony rant coming on, so I quickly cut in with "How did you know it wasn't Natasha's?"

"Phone calls? I have caller ID sweaty. Besides, why would she even need to call me, I have been here you know." At the stern and very serious look she gave him, he gave her a real answer "Bruce did a DNA test, but come on, both of you being pregnant at the same time! The odd's don't get me started cause I really did them. Can you imagine those two having a kid anyway? That's assuming Barton's the dad, Tasha's got the bod-" he came to a stuttering halt when the caught sight of Peppers face again and got back on track "I had guessed by then, and went out to get you something, then I decided nah. There's no way she'd go for this, so I went and got drunk off my ass. I made Clint come, which turned out to be a good thing seeing as what happened. I admit that chick at the bar was hot, but Clint so didn't have to give me a lecture on-"

"Tony" I hissed, because he seemed determined to stay off focus, when this was the one time I really needed him to pay attention! "Right sorry, er yeah well don't you think it would also be kind of random for that girl to go for me-" but this time brought himself to a jarring halt at the look on Peppers face, so straitened his own out and continued in a more sane tone.

"You know you should probably go to a hospital though, I mean I've been doing some research, and it seems that your allergic reaction shouldn't have affected the baby, you didn't go that long without oxygen, but still better safe then sorry right? Plus, I figured we could probably put the baby's room down here, you know away form most of the noise of the rest of this place, but still close enough we could be there at once. This is probably the most secure place, since it doesn't have any windows on this floor and-" he forcibly stopped himself from continuing his ramble, again. Pepper was starting to get a creeping feeling up her spine about what had his mind so lost that it was having more trouble then usual focusing. Tony straitened his back, and then decided right there that he couldn't put this off anymore.

"Listen Pepper. I love you, and I hope that you still love me even after all I've put you threw."

He let out a huge breath, ran his hand backwards threw his hair, and then walked forwards to cover what little gap was between them and placed one hand on her stomach while using the other to wrap around her waist, securing her to him. "I think I even get why you didn't want to tell me about this for two and a half months, but I'm going to put all that aside for now. What I need you to know is that, I'm going to be there for you, and our child." He took the hand away from her waist, and instead moved it to the pocket he had been hiding what now appeared to be a tiny black box.

"Pepper, will you marry me?"

She looked up at an expression she never thought to appear on the playboys face. Insecurity, mingled with unrepressed hope. Her voice caught hard in her throat, and she seemed unable to answer for so long that the hope turned to fear and shame. He slowly started to put the box back in his pocket and back away from her personal space when Pepper leaped at him. Securing his lips with hers, and answering his question with a silent, but sworn from the heart yes.

* * *

Wow, that was probably the cheesiest ending I've ever done, and will ever do again hopefully. But the cheese seems appropriate for a Pepperony ending, and I hope you guys liked it. As a fun game, try to go back and spot how many clues I left.


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